


Dying Grace

by Raelae



Series: Tales From The Apocalypse [7]
Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 12:15:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12983871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raelae/pseuds/Raelae
Summary: Through a chance meeting while on patrol, Ellie is sent down a spiral of death and destruction as she tries to discover the truth of her mothers death...and the cult that may have had something to do with it.





	Dying Grace

Ellie moved silently but swiftly through the dense forest, following the trail of blood that was speckled across the ferns along the forest floor.

For nearly three weeks she had been out here on her own, hunting them. Trying to force information out of any of the ones she caught. But all proved to be annoyingly tight lipped, giving no answers to her questions.

As the days passed on she became more and more irritated with each of them, tired of their silent treatment towards her. She wanted answers, and she was going to get them by any means necessary.

It was but a chance meeting that got her to where she was today, a mere flip of the coin really. She could have been almost anywhere else that day around the settlement. But a decision to check out some old abandoned buildings not too far from the town set her on a new path.

They had both been surprised initially when she opened the door to one of the cabins, finding a lone person sitting in the middle of the floor, fiddling with his hole ridden boots. 

They both stared at each other for a moment, neither making any sort of movement. The mans eyes eventually widened and he reached quickly for the hand gun sticking out of the pack next to him. Ellie was quicker though, raising her rifle and firing off a warning shot mere inches from the left side of his face. He froze in place, hand hovering just above the handle of his gun.

She glared at him, motioning with her head for him to move away from his pack, not daring to take her rifle aim off of him. He did as she motioned, slowly so as to not risk a possible itchy trigger finger.

Ellie moved closer, eyes still on him as she kicked his bag to the other side of the room, further from him. It tumbled into a bunch of metal buckets under an old rickety table, causing them to clang loudly.

She winced at the sound, giving him the opening he needed and he rushed her, tackling her to the ground.

She had been quick enough though to raise the rifle up in front of her, using it as a barrier between herself and the man when she hit the floor. She used it as leverage to push him further from her till she had enough space to bring her knee up, nailing him in the gut.

He flopped over to the side, holding his stomach as he tried to roll away from her at the same time, towards his bag.

He didn't get far enough though. He managed one roll, seeing her over him as he settled on his back. The last thing he saw was the butt of her rifle coming down on his face.

Everything after that played out in a sort of haze to her. She'd found some rope in a pile of junk in one of the corners and tied all his limbs, not risking a repeat performance. Then she went through his bag, looking to take anything useful before he woke up.

He had the usual hodgepodge of things, odds and ends for making weapons or fixing things. Bits of broken blades and duct tape, empty cans and...matches? Good find there. And they were wind proof ones. Was rare finding them these days.

She continued through his bag, tossing what she deemed useless to the side while throwing the worth while stuff in her bag.

She stopped abruptly when she heard him grunting though, turning her head to glance over her shoulder. He was starting to come to slowly, grunting as he shifted, his stomach clearly still bothering him. Good. Fucker deserved it.

He was an older man, probably about Joel's age by the looks of him, and like Joel he nowhere seemed to show his age. He had moved pretty quickly during their little struggle, she'd be impressed if she hadn't been so pissed off.

She scowled as she got up, stalking her way over to the older man, ready to show him a thing or two for fucking with her.

She had grabbed his collar, punching him hard in the side of the face a few times till she finally got him to snap completely to.

He had been confused of course at first, forgetting for a moment where he was, but he remembered quickly when he saw those eyes burning deep into his soul. He struggled a bit, but realized it was futile when he discovered he was bound good and tight. He was at her mercy.

She laid into him quickly, making sure he knew from the get go how stupid of an idea it had been for him to attack her, then asking him who the fuck he was and why he was there. The confusion returned to his face, wondering just who this kid thought she was interrogating him. But then his brows knit together, like he was trying hard to figure something out. It was making her feel really uncomfortable. 

“...what the fuck is your problem?” She had asked him.

His answer was far from what she expected, and it left her now as the confused one.

“...you look just like her...I remember that face...you're her spawn aren't you? You survived...”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You're the spitting resemblance of that bitch, that curse. That...evil...Anna...”

“...what did you just say?”

He was clearly done talking and snapped his mouth shut, biting down on his tongue in the process.

Ellie had quickly grabbed his jaw with her other hand, forcing it open before he could bite the thing right in half. She managed, though enough damage had been done that a good swath of blood oozed from his mouth. Now she really wondered what this was all about, if the man was willing to just kill himself rather than answer her questions.

But damage enough had been done. She had prevented him from biting his tongue off, but not enough to stop him from making it impossible for him to speak. There was just enough damage that the tongue now proved worthless to form any sort of rational syllables.

Irritated, she had dragged him back to the settlement.

She ended up leaving him in Tommy's hands, since she really couldn't get anything out of him. Tommy, of course, had no better luck, as his attempts to make him write something down were met with failure. And somehow during that night, he had managed to get himself free. They found him out behind the building he had been kept in, having killed himself.

Ellie couldn't get over it. Something had happened back then, something that asshole had known about, and she wasn't about to let his death stop her. 

She'd dug through more of his things and found an old map with locations marked on it, each marking being a cross set on an angle. She found that a bit odd, seeing as most marks on maps were X's. What made these so different?

The following night after that had been a long one. It was mostly her and Joel arguing late into the night about how she wanted to go check these places out, to find out just what the hell all this was about. What sort of connection they had with her mother. And why the hell the guy had been willing to kill himself over it all.

Joel had gone on and on, with what he had to of known was a lost cause, about how the old man could have been mistaken, senile or something. Or how people often had others that looked just like them but held no relation to them. But even he knew that was no coincidence. Deep down he knew it was really her, he just didn't want her to run off on some fools errand to avenge something that happened before the girl had even been born. Sure, he understood it had been her mother but, what the hell would taking the risk really do? Wouldn't bring her back, wouldn't make Ellie feel any better. He knew that for a fact. Even after Tommy had killed that soldier that killed Sarah, his little girl...no relief was ever found.

That night had ended in a stalemate, and by morning...she had left, leaving only a note behind. 

'I will find the truth.'

That was weeks ago now, weeks and miles ago. She was somewhere in Washington now according to the map. Around Seattle somewhere. She'd hit several of the marked places by this point and found them to be empty, save for a lot of weird religious looking texts talking about demons and people being, 'nested with evil.'

She was actually really wondering now what she had gotten herself into. These people were not ordinary. She thought the cannibals she had faced five years before were bad enough, but she found that there were many kinds of people in this world, and somehow they seemed to trump what she had seen previously.

In the last house she had checked, she found not only the texts but drawings, showing how to 'deal with those nested with evil.' Crude drawings of people hung from trees, insides trailing out of their stomachs and dangling above the ground.

Just who the fuck was she dealing with here?

That's when she had heard the noise and turned just in time to see a man with peppered gray hair stumble over some old decaying boxes, tripping and falling right out the door and down the steps.

By the time she had gotten to the doorway he was comically trying to gain purchase on his feet again, stumbling and nearly falling over every time he manged.

She pulled her gun out from her waistband and fired at him, hitting him in the right calf. He stumbled again and face planted to the ground, muffled curses emanating from somewhere in the tall brush he had fallen into.

Ellie had begun to move towards him, only to have him pop up just enough so his head and shoulders were visible. She barely had time to duck out of the way when she realized he had a gun, she rolled behind a tree as he fired at her, chips of bark peppering her face.

He covered his retreat, continuing to fire at her as he stumbled away.

She moved when he ran out of ammo. She heard him curse followed by a thud that sounded like the gun hitting the ground harshly. The idiot must not have had anymore ammo and he'd wasted it firing blindly.

Regardless of that though, he had managed to disappear into the dense forest, leaving her to where she was now, tracking the fool. Even with a hole in his leg, and obvious blood loss, he was still managing to evade her.

But the splotches of blood left on the ferns were growing larger and were spaced closer and closer together. That told her two things. One, the bleeding was worsening, brought on by his running no doubt. And two, he was slowing down. It would only be a matter of time now.

And indeed his time was up. She found him not long after, leaning against what appeared to be an old newspaper stand. At some point she must have entered the city. The overgrowth here seemed to have almost completely devoured what once was, at an alarming rate.

But that mattered little to her at the moment. What did matter was the man before her, sitting in a pool of blood that was slowly forming around him. 

She didn't waste any time.

“Hey asshole, look at me!”

He slowly raised his head, looking up at her. Guy looked dead already, she needed to make this quick.

“Who the fuck are you? What's with all those weird ass buildings?”

He said nothing, just stared up at her as a cough escaped him.

Ellie glared, lifting her foot and stomping down on his injured leg. He cried out.

“I asked you some fucking questions!”

“OK, OK...” He huffed through the pain. “Just...just where we meet...our sermons...”

“Sermons?”

“Churches...gathering places...whatever you want to call them...”

“Don't look like any church I've ever seen. Don't normally find pictures instructing you how to properly gut people.”

“It's how we...deal with the tainted ones...”

“Tainted ones?”

“Those infected...by the demons...”

“What demons?”

He gave her a look, wondering if she was struck dumb or something.

“What demons!?” She repeated.

“The ones that plague our world...the monsters...

“The infected? Your demons are the infected?”

“Demons...demons that like they said...would spill over into our world when Hell got too full...”

Ellie quirked a brow at him. Now she was in no way the religious type but, she knew the stories, heard some of the things people said about Heaven and Hell, and she remembered hearing that one somewhere before. But people actually were thinking this right now? Even twenty-five years after?

“They're not demons. They're people infected with a fungus. This things been around forever, infecting bugs and shit. It's not some spawn from Hell.”

“Blasphemy!” He cried. “You are either ignorant or one soon to be nested with evil!”

“Don't feed me that bullshit. I've seen evil and believe me...the infected aren't it.”

“Blasphemer!”

She punched him in the side of the head to shut him up.

“Have to believe to be a blasphemer. Now I don't give a shit about your...cult. I got questions and I want answers, and I want them before you bleed out.”

“I have nothing to say to you.”

“Funny, because you sure as shit have been talking a lot.”

He snapped his mouth shut, she could even hear his teeth snap together.

“I ran into a buddy of yours a few weeks back, and he had a bit of a panic attack thinking I looked like someone... someone I never got to know, and he seemed real disturbed by it.

“How should I know? We have different sects anyway, we don't always cross paths.”

“Wrong answer.” She stomped down on his leg again, causing him to cry out once more. “Now...the more noise you make like that, the better chances are that your...'demons', are gonna' come running. So I suggest you stop pissing me off and answer me.”

She crouched down but still kept a good space between them, she just wanted to give him a better view.

“Now fucking look at me. Do I remind you of someone or not?”

He was quiet for a moment, eyes squinting as he tried to see what was presented before him. Ellie moved a tad bit closer, realizing his vision was starting to go, but still kept her guard up. She heard his breath catch and watched as he visibly tried to pull himself further from her, only to be stopped by the stand behind him.

“Answer me old man...”

“...I know your face yes...”

“...and?”

She pulled away from him now, not daring to risk the closeness any longer. She got back to her feet, continuing to stare down at him, studying his face, seeing the mixture of hatred and tiredness mixed therein. His time was running out.

“And?”

“Anna...the tainted one...the one nested with evil...”

“What the fuck does nested with evil mean?”

“...”

“Talk old man!”

He went tight lipped at that moment, refusing to talk any further.

“Asshole tell me!” She grabbed the collar of his old tattered shirt, shaking him.

“...you're her spawn...aren't you? He should have killed you when he stumbled across you...and he failed...”

“...what?”

But she would get no further answers from him. In the distance she heard the cries.

“Shit...infected...”

“Demons...”

She gathered herself back together, starting to back peddle a bit.

“You can't leave me...”

“...you're dead already. Besides...like I'd help you. You had something to do with my moms death...I know it.”

“...rot in Hell with her...”

“...” She kicked him hard in the face before running off, leaving him coughing and gagging behind her, blood pouring from his broken nose.

The coughing and gagging soon turned to screams as the infected reached him. She could hear them screaming, some somewhat legible words mixed in here and there, and then the sounds of clicks. This was soon replaced with the sounds of tearing flesh and crunching bones, gurgles and coughs as they practically inhaled their meal. And soon his cries stopped.

“...that end was too good for you old man...you won't turn at least...” She mumbled to herself as she quietly slipped away.

 

She walked for sometime, reaching an old street lined with rusted broken down cars and houses ready to fall at any moment. Larger buildings loomed in the background, though mostly covered with the tall trees and other lush overgrowth.

She turned and walked down one of the streets, stopping as she saw and old stop sign with a Firefly symbol painted on it in white. She frowned, not giving it another thought as she moved on. 

She stopped and listened as she heard muffled talking coming from one of the rundown houses to her left.

She hunched down and moved quietly but quickly towards it, being ever so careful as she moved towards one of the windows at the front.

She leaned against the wall, tucked just under the window as she listened to the conversation within.

It sounded like a man and a woman, chatting something about finding more 'nested ones' and 'dealing them quickly.'

She scowled, it was more of those cult freaks. By this point she knew she wasn't going to get answers from the likes of them. She had to go higher up. She had to find their Elders, their Priests...whatever the fuck they wanted to call them.

But these people...this cult...they were just going to kill more and more innocent people. The cult...needed to be cleansed. She was sure they were killing more than infected...or who they considered infected. She wasn't even sure what their logic was. Did they think only certain types of people became 'demons' and so they killed them? She thought about the 'nested with evil' and how they gutted the victims, so they had some belief that something was going on in the belly. She thought maybe they killed pregnant woman, maybe having some belief that having a child without loving the man you were with was a sin, and caused a demon birth? She'd read how some believed in that before but, even that didn't make sense, as the diagrams she found depicted both men and women. 

This was something she was going to have to figure out along the way. But she knew for sure that they killed her mother, and that maybe her being conceived had something to do with it. So what was it with her, and with her mother?

She scowled, she would get her answers, no matter how long it took to get them.

It was only now that she noticed the voices had stopped, the house now quiet within. Now was the time, time to send a message to this cult. Time to tell them she was coming for them.

It all happened quickly at this point, her kicking the door open, finding a man standing by the counter to the kitchen. She shot him before he even had a chance to reach for his gun, and she was already down the hallway before he hit the ground.

Her next victim was in the bathroom, the woman. She had little time to react either, eating round after round as Ellie plugged her chock full, her body hitting the wall behind her and sliding down between the toilet and the bathtub.

She moved with more caution now, as she wasn't sure if anyone else was in the house or not. She'd only heard a man and woman talking but, that didn't mean they were alone.

She was right to take caution though as a man darted out from a room at the end of the hallway, holding a machete'.

She raised her gun to fire.

'click, click, click.'

“...shit...”

He went to swing at her and she jumped back, nearly missing the blade that swung mere inches from her throat. She stumbled back, falling to the floor, gun sliding and disappearing somewhere behind her, the man on her in a second. He heaved the blade down, aiming for her head, She rolled just enough to keep from a death blow, the blade grazing the right side of her neck and slicing it open. The blade was now stuck in the floor, giving Ellie the opening she needed.

She rolled to her side and jumped to her feet, rushing him and slamming him against the opposite wall. He grunted with the impact, trying to recover, but Ellie was already on the move. She rushed towards the machete', using momentum to yank the blade from the floor as she rushed passed it. She turned quickly, finding him advancing already. She didn't hesitate as she met him head on, running him through all the way to the hilt so she was pressed against him, his head just over her right shoulder. She heard him cough and gurgle as blood rose in his throat.

After a few moments she pulled back, sliding the blade out and watching him stumble away. He moved down the hall to the room he'd rushed from, sliding along the wall and leaving a streak of blood. He got a few feet into the room before crumpling to the floor in front of the bed. There was nothing but silence now.

She walked into the room and stood over him, staring down as the blood pooled beneath him, the only reaction on her face being a cold stare.

Finally she let the machete' fall to the floor, clanging as it bounced a couple times before coming to a rest.

She sat down on the bed after, staring around the room, taking in the wall cluttered with posters, looking over to the window where the remnants of the curtain danced in the breeze.

Then, out of the corner of her eye she noticed something sitting against the dresser nearby. An old guitar.

Slowly she reached for it, not expecting much considering how long it must have been sitting here out in the elements.

But as she picked it up she noticed the wood was in fairly good condition, and the strings seemed strong and almost new looking. She surmised that this house must not have been it's original home, and that it was brought here at some point. But whether it was by these people or someone else she'd never know, nor really cared to.

Her hand trembled and she had to take a moment to calm the nerves before she ran her fingers across it, strumming a few notes. It didn't sound half bad, a little off but, not bad. She reached up and started to tune it, tightening and testing the strings till she found the cords she was looking for. Then, in a scene that any person with a lesser constitution might question, she began to play a song...with a bloody corpse at her feet.

Even through the sounds of the guitar and her voice filling the air around the bloody scene, she could hear the footfalls out in the front room, the heavy thud that came from someone very obviously stepping over the corpse out there. But she didn't quit playing, didn't reach for the machete'. She knew those footfalls well, knew they meant her no ill will. She'd been expecting them eventually anyway.

The footsteps stopped as they reached the doorway to the bedroom, and she continued the song for a few more beats before slowly ending it, sitting silently with the guitar still across her lap.

The silence lapsed for a few more moments before she heard the gruff voice she knew all too well. The one that always brought her comfort when the nightmares came and irritated her in the moments they berated her. The only man she ever really considered her father, even if she didn't say it.

“...what are you doing kiddo? You really gonna' go through with this?”

She stayed quiet for a few moments before finally moving, setting the guitar off to the side. At first she didn't look at him, staring off to the side a tad.

“...I'm gonna' find...and I'm gonna' kill, every...last...one of them.” She turned to face him with her last few words, resolve and coldness in her gaze. 

He said nothing to this. This was her journey now, and he had no intention of stopping her.

**Author's Note:**

> So...this progressed over time. Even before the announcement of a second game...I had a feeling Anna's death wasn't...natural in any way. I mean...I tossed around the possibility that it happened through childbirth but...something just never felt right for me, and for some time I felt the Fireflies could have something to do with it.
> 
> But then this...weird sect or cult or whatever was brought to our attention. Though my idea of who might have had a hand in her death changed...obviously my ideas that she was killed hasn't changed. I'm just not completely sure of the reasons, thus why I stayed vague in the story for the most part. Many ideas bounced around in my head like, she messed around with a guy they didn't approve of or he had become infected after, or they just judged her by whatever standards they go by and deemed her capable of becoming a demon...I don't know. Not enough info...but I like that though. 
> 
> But regardless of all that, I do believe her death may not have been without help in some way. Could it still have been childbirth...yes. It's possible, especially with lack of medical care in the apocalypse. But if that chick in the second trailer is really Anna...I don't know if childbirth could take her. She was scary buff as shit, and strong. XD
> 
> But sorry for my rambling. It's hard to make a story out of one or two ideas but...I tried. XD


End file.
